Suggestions for Future Tours

[Deluthan]

I wanted to offer for discussion a few suggestions for future Tours. I'm not participating in the Tour mostly due to time restraints, and in small part because I have found the rules a little complicated, so take from these suggestions what you may. I do want to say that I think the Tour has a lot of merit, especially when it comes to the notion of determining who is the best all-round dueler. If I suggest something that's already in the rules or has been brought up before, then I apologize because I must have missed it.

First suggestion, create a mission statement. Explain the primary goal(s) of the Tour. It's still not clear to me whether or not a single duelist wins wins the Tour or a team. I recommend something like determining who the best all-round dueler is in Rhydin.

Second, eliminate the team aspect of the Tour. I'm not exactly privy to the Tour de France rules, but I know there is only one biker that wins it, not a team. The NASCAR Chase is like this also; you have teams of drivers, but only one driver wins the Nextel Cup.

If the only point of having teams registered is to have team-based events and to test an individual dueler's mettle in such events, you could set up the events so that people either (1) group into teams at the start of the event, or (2) register a team the week before an event JUST for that one event . Duelers wouldn't be required to be with the same group of duelers for every team-based event. There could still be unofficial "teams"--that is, groups of duelers could agree to always team together in the team-based events and help each other in brawls--but, again, not officially recognized and thus not required.

Third, do away with different types of sport-based points and just have Tour Points (TPs). If the purpose of the Tour is to find the best all-round dueler, then the points in each of the three sports should all count equally.

For stats keeping, or if you still want to have a different colored jersey for the leader in each sport, you could always segregate the points to show who is leading in each sport. But, at the least, you would have an overall point-leaders board, which decides who takes home the main prize at the end of the Tour, for which all points would be accumulated into a single point total.

Four. You're going to have competitive duelists (those who want to win) and casual duelists (those who care more about participating in the special events than winning), and IMO it's healthy to have both. This brings me to my last suggestion, which is to keep registration open for the length of Tour. Obviously, anyone who enters the Tour half-way through isn't going to have much of a chance of winning it, but it allows anyone who wants to participate in those later events--either to practice for the next Tour, to win one of the side prizes, or just to participate for the fun of it--to do so.

I guess all this helps to simplify things and provide focus. The Tour would determine the best all-round dueler, by putting duelers through a series of stages and events that run the gamut of the dueling world, in each of which duelers would earn points based on placement that go to an overall score. I guess that's my only qualm with the Tour at this point, is that I don't get what the Tour is really about.

Just some thoughts for consideration.

[Amaltea]

This brings me to my last suggestion, which is to keep registration open for the length of Tour.

I just wanted to say that registration is indeed open throughout the Tour. But if you want to win a jersey, or at least have a fair chance, the ealier you join the better.

[Vanion Shadowcast]

I have some suggestions for Random as well, mostly based around some issues I've found with a) lack of non-tour duel participation, and more selfishly b) the difficulty one can find matching up ranks to find team stage duels (I was not able to get a single Champion to duel me in the previous Team Magic stage, for instance, removing any chance I had of placing in the event).

[Tasslehofl Momus]

b) the difficulty one can find matching up ranks to find team stage duels (I was not able to get a single Champion to duel me in the previous Team Magic stage, for instance, removing any chance I had of placing in the event).

I know there were a total of 3 Champions on and dueling on Tuesday night (the last night), but that was earlier in the evening. I'm not sure if Vince/Brig stayed after I had to leave or not.. hell, they might have left before I did, I don't remember.

But I can see the point of having too few in a room for any given Team stage, as there are fewer Champions than the other 'ranks'. I'm not saying to increase the number of Champions (since there are so few members on a team), but perhaps rethink the point allotment for each rank. As it stands now, a Dan can duel twice and, pending they win both, can be ahead of a Champion if they win only one. Perhaps, instead of a 1/2/3 points per win for the respective rank increase, a 1/3/5 points per win? Yes, this would still have the same outcome as my previous example, but the more that each rank duels means the more that the lower ranks have to win in order to gain the top rank.

Now before anyone goes off on me on that, I requested to be a Dan at first because I wanted more to duel, but was argued otherwise for this stage of the Teams.